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Shortly after my wife and I were married in 2009 (we just had our 10th anniversary last week :), we found ourselves in a tight spot financially. I was laid off from work, she wasn’t making enough to support our lifestyle and we were in deep financial trouble.

There are few things that will humble a person like looking down the barrel of not being able to pay rent in a months time. Something needed to change.

Disclaimer: This article was sponsored by TicketFlipping.com. This means that I have received compensation in exchange for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you’ve been reading NinjaBudgeter for a while, you know that I’m a huge fan of flipping. I love the challenge of buying something used and turning it around fast for a profit. I even ran a little appliance flipping side hustle for a while.

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Think there’s no way to get free internet access? Think again!

Let’s be real here, the cost of internet service is getting ridiculous. In fact, the average American household now pays $67 for internet. That number is lower in Canada, around $55. Many ISPs start their internet packages at around $50, and they go well up into the 3-digit range from there. As more people get online and speeds continue to increase, prices are only going to go up!

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I can hear the anti-debt crusaders charging in my direction already.

How dare you!

Everybody knows that spending money on anything other than the bare essentials of utter foolishness until you’re completely out of debt right? Extreme frugality is the only way to financial independence right?

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If you’re a parent, you know that kids are usually one of two things: bored and hungry. The hungry thing can get expensive! Food costs can get out of control when you’re feeding multiple people.

I’ve tried all kinds of things over the years from extreme couponing (ugh, no thanks…) to driving around and shopping sales. These things made a dent in our food cost but we needed something more structured to reign in our food spending.

The answer for us turned out to be meal prepping. Finding a bunch of easy and cheap meal prep recipes was what we needed to turn our grocery spending right around.

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So you’ve decided that it’s time to upgrade your ride. Like most people, you’ve probably spent hours online researching makes, models and colors for your new vehicle. You’ve probably researched which models hold their value and have a good idea of what you want to buy.

Here’s the thing, if you don’t invest some effort into your old ride as well, you could be leaving hundreds or thousands of dollars on the table. Sure you can offload any car for cheap, but that’s not what you want, is it? You want to get top dollar for your old ride!

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Choosing to buy a used car rather than a new one is a wise financial decision for most people, but there are several things to consider. A used car has a history, it may have been mistreated, or even crashed. It could have been broken into or stolen.

Don’t stress about it though, there is a lot you can do to make sure that a used car purchase is a good deal.

I also asked my Twitter followers what they look for when buying a used car and have included some of their answers below.

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“I’m bored!”

The dreaded words that no parent wants to hear. Children have a way of declaring that they’re bored that can drives us parents (who know that they have a room full of toys) crazy. I think they can smell exhaustion, and when they detect that us parents are at our wits end, that’s when they pounce with the boredom talk.

Funny how emptying the dishwasher is never enough of an activity to quench their boredom… The reality is, they want you to entertain them. They usually want their parents to rush in and save the day with some amazing, fun activity.

Consider writing down these ideas on a poster board or chalkboard in your home. To encourage your kids to be decisive and learn how to make fun for themselves, you can ask them to choose an activity from the board when they don’t know what to do.